Prowling my world, camera in hand

27 February 2011

Week 08: tapas and Mercado

Filed under: — Administrator @ 11:11

This week’s pictures have a strong tapas component. Our photography club held its monthly roundtable (tertulia) at Bodega Adolfo on Tuesday night, and on Thursday I went out with three colleagues to check out tapas bars for a departmental outing planned for March 11th. So lots of pictures of tapas, bars and food this week.

Main
But I start with a bar that closed many years ago, and now is turning into a ruin, slowly but surely. I have long meant to photograph it, and on Sunday afternoon there was the additional attraction of a very dramatic sky. This picture is not manipulated, this is really what it looked like:
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Alternates
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Alternate 1
Recycling, Alicante style. When throwing out something that might be of use to others, it is common to leave it in a manner which makes it easy for people to avail themselves of the items:
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Alternate 2
Poster put up on the window of a restaurant that went out of business some time ago. The text says something to the effect that the politicians have left us high and dry and we must stand up to them:
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Alternate 3
Tuesday evening we held a monthly photography roundtable at our habitual location, Bodega Adolfo. The bar has a projector for showing football etc., but we preferred to use our own. Here is the club’s president, Mark, trying to hang it using tape:
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Alternate 4
Adolfo’s counter:
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Alternate 5
On Thursday, I went to check out tapas places with some colleagues, collectively known as the Tapas Management Committee. We had a serious purpose. In two weeks, our department will have it annual tapas-hopping event, and we needed to select the bars to visit. We explored a neighbourhood of Alicante which was new to me. It is working class neighbourhood but the tapas are actually better than in the centre and the bar owners were very friendly and welcoming. Here is a scene from El Rincón de la Amistad (“friendship corner”):
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Alternate 6
One of the traditional tapas, calamares:
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Alternate 7
The Rincón de la Amistad turned out to be an excellent choice. Here is the address for anyone visiting Alicante:
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Alternate 8
Two of my fellow members of the Tapas Management Committee, Beatrice and Herbert:
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Alternate 9
Our notes with bars to visit and what to order in each place. Our tapas hopping is a structured event:
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Alternate 10
Typical Spanish scene. The daughter of the owner of this tapas bar is on her lunch break, so of course she comes to daddy’s bar to eat:
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Alternate 11
Old advertisement at Jesús Dos tapas bar. Beer is indeed delicious:
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Alternate 12
Friday night my wife and I went for dinner at our neighbourhood tapas place, Lizarran. Eating out is very much a family event around here. Children are not put to bed at 8 or 9 p.m. as is common in Northern Europe. This picture is taken around 10:30-11 p.m.:
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Alternate 13
Saturday morning I went to the Mercado Central to buy lamb, fresh koriander, Lithuanian bread and pickled herring. While waiting for my lamb (they were cutting it in cubes for me), I looked around and snapped pictures–this is the other reason I like to go to the Mercado:
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Alternate 14
Little girl in the crowd at the market. She seemed happy:
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3 Comments »

  1. I have looked at just a few of these images, and like the selection of Alicante life etc that I see.
    However, I am going to look at the set using a very old browser, (Opera 3.62) because with every other browser I have (there are 4 of them) the menu on the RHS obscures about 30% of each image (on the RHS). it would be great if fotocycle would create a code which enabled the RHS menu to vanish or return at will, using a single button somewhere.
    I do not have one of the new-fangled long-oblong screens.

    Comment by Brian Swale — 27 February 2011 @ 13:46

  2. A very enjoyable selection. The derelict bar is a perfect subject beneath such a sky.

    And tapas hopping, that’s something I must do one day.

    Comment by Peter Cheyne — 27 February 2011 @ 14:53

  3. Very nice “slice of life” photos. Curiously. what are the work hours in Alicante? As you know in the US it is traditionally 9 to 5. In Wales it was 8 to 4. In India it was – whatever, as long as there was no wedding, birthday, holiday, religious festival scheduled.

    Comment by Larry Z — 28 February 2011 @ 15:38

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